Volunteer of the Month: Corrina 05 SEP 2017

Corrina joined St Basils 4 years ago as a volunteer working with Leigh and our team over in Bromsgrove. We decided to catch up with Corrina:

‘I started volunteering for St Basils after reaching a low point in my life, I’d dealt with several bereavements and was poorly myself. I decided to pick myself up, get myself in a positive mind-set and give something back to society. I worked 2 days a week putting on cookery and craft classes for the young people, I’d work with between 5 and 10 young people a day, I absolutely loved it. I then moved on to do much more support work. After volunteering for 3 years, Leigh the Manager at Bromsgrove convinced me to join the team as a permanent member of staff which I am now. I work night shifts which include planning and facilitating activities for the young people, including cooking , making crafts to sell on our Christmas stall and making items for your home . I complete Lifeskills modules of an evening with the young people who are not around during the day. I also carry on the work of day staff ensuring the project is a PIE environment so that the young people can enjoy living here , receiving support and grow as individuals enabling them to eventually live independently.

Volunteering at St Basils has provided me with a career change a sense of purpose and massive job satisfaction. Bromsgrove is an amazing place to work and I hope I am helping contribute to the successes of all our young people.'

We caught up with Leigh Hesketh, Support Manager at Bromsgrove:

'I have watched Corrina develop as a support worker, she started working here as a volunteer she wasn’t very confident and was concerned about making mistakes. After volunteering for a couple of weeks the change in her was evident. Since then Corrina has gone on to be an integral part of our team. The young people look forward to her being on shift because of all the activities she arranges with them. She goes above and beyond always being the first person to offer to help with any situation. Corrina brings so much to the team, this is evidence, if needed that volunteering really works it allows people to “give back” learn new skills , learn about the environment, understand policies and procedures and get to know the young people, which enables them to be able to apply for any roles that are advertised giving them good background knowledge over other candidates. As a manager I would gladly take on new volunteers as they bring so much to the project that sometimes support staff don’t have time to do, and as Corrina has shown with the right training can make excellent support workers.'